Monday 23 October 2000 17.15 EDT
First published on Monday 23 October 2000 17.15 EDT

Nineteen months after losing control of a successful Under-21 team Peter Taylor will pick the England side to play Italy in a friendly in Turin three weeks from now. The 47-year-old Leicester City manager agreed to take on the task last night in the chaos left by Kevin Keegan's sudden resignation following the World Cup defeat by Germany at Wembley a fortnight ago.

Originally the Football Association's plan was to have Taylor and Steve McClaren, Sir Alex Ferguson's assistant at Manchester United, working under Bobby Robson for as long as it took to find Keegan's full-time successor, but that idea was scuppered on Saturday evening when Newcastle United refused to allow Robson to be approached.

Instead Taylor and the 39-year-old McClaren will take a break from their clubs to look after the Italian job with Brian Kidd, now in charge of youth development at Leeds, running the Under-21s. "Leicester are very happy for me to take charge of England for this one match," Taylor explained, "and it will not affect my work at Filbert Street."

More significantly, in terms of rebuilding England over the next five to 10 years, the FA has already reduced the list of candidates for the job to three and will begin to sound out the choices this week.

Arsenal's Arsène Wenger remains the prime target with Lazio's Swedish coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, not far behind him. The third man could be Roy Hodgson, the Londoner who took Switzerland to the 1994 World Cup, or even Ferguson. The 67-year-old Robson is not being considered.

Adam Crozier, the FA's chief executive, yesterday made it clear that Taylor's caretakership would provide the time necessary to find the right man and it is still the intention to have a new coach signed up by Christmas. Certainly the FA will be disappointed if England find themselves approaching the next game after Italy, a friendly against Spain at Villa Park on February 27, still with nobody in charge on a long-term basis.

"We don't want to have to leave things until the last moment," Crozier stressed. He refused to rule the popular choice, Terry Venables, in or out at this stage but did point out that media hype would play no part in the FA's thinking. "I always go on personal conversations and what people say to you in private," Crozier said. "That is the proper way to do this, not through opinion polls.'

For the moment, then, the task of halting an England decline which began with the failure of Keegan's side in this summer's European Championship and continued with the 1-0 defeat by Germany and soulless, scoreless draw with Finland under the FA's technical director Howard Wilkinson has fallen to two likeable and able coaches whose experience of handling teams at full international level is nil.

To be sure Taylor's three years with the Under-21s, where he learned much from Glenn Hoddle, and McClaren's time with Ferguson at Old Trafford, where he has worked with a number of leading England players, will stand the pair in good stead. Yet the latest appointment is still a matter of make do and mend.

Technical turbulence

To avoid embarrassing speculation both Crozier and Taylor went out of their way to explain that the position of Wilkinson would not be affected by the appointment of the man from whom he took over the Under-21 squad.

"My relationship with Howard is very good," Taylor insisted. "When Glenn left it was natural that the technical director would want to be running the most senior team for which he was responsible, which was the Under-21s. Had I been technical director I would have done the same."

"The position of Howard Wilkinson is unchanged," said Crozier. "He has been fully involved in these appointments and has always believed that the best future for England lies in long-term planning."

Nobody could argue with that but, if the FA cannot get a coach in place before the end of the year, the problem of who is to pick the team not only for the Spain game but the World Cup qualifiers against Finland and Albania in late March will loom large. Last night Taylor and McClaren made the right noises about their future availability but at that time of the season United and Leicester might be less ready to let them go.

If Taylor appeared a little bemused by his sudden promotion it was understandable. Originally a Southend United player, he won four England caps as a Crystal Palace winger, later moving to Tottenham and Leyton Orient.

As a manager he began at Dover and enjoyed a humdrum period at Southend before Hoddle called him up to take over the England Under-21 squad. It was his success with the juniors which brought him national recognition as an accomplished coach and on returning to management with Gillingham and now Leicester he has continued to thrive.

One effect of having Taylor in charge could see England reverting to a 5-3-2/3-5-2 formation in Turin. "I like 5-3-2, but I also like a back four," Taylor said last night.

But first he will have to see who turns up. At least with a United man as his assistant Taylor will receive first-hand information about aches and strains at Old Trafford.